Logging into the Windows 2003 Server felt like“ Zaphod Beeblebrox trying to fly Mr Hotblack Desiato’s spaceship:
“Every time you try to operate on of these weird black controls that are labelled in black on a black background, a little black light lights up black to let you know you’ve done it. What is this?”
How the heck are you supposed to log into that mess?
If“ you can manage to get logged in, either by guessing on the fields, or booting into safe mode where the right colors show up, it’s an easy registry fix to return the colors to normal (check the values and change any that are set to 0, but shouldn’t be.“ Or, just download the correct registry file here):
[HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Colors] "ActiveBorder"="212 208 200" "ActiveTitle"="0 84 227" "AppWorkSpace"="128 128 128" "Background"="0 78 152" "ButtonAlternateFace"="181 181 181" "ButtonDkShadow"="113 111 100" "ButtonFace"="236 233 216" "ButtonHilight"="255 255 255" "ButtonLight"="241 239 226" "ButtonShadow"="172 168 153" "ButtonText"="0 0 0" "GradientActiveTitle"="61 149 255" "GradientInactiveTitle"="157 185 235" "GrayText"="172 168 153" "Hilight"="49 106 197" "HilightText"="255 255 255" "HotTrackingColor"="0 0 128" "InactiveBorder"="212 208 200" "InactiveTitle"="122 150 223" "InactiveTitleText"="216 228 248" "InfoText"="0 0 0" "InfoWindow"="255 255 225" "Menu"="255 255 255" "MenuText"="0 0 0" "Scrollbar"="212 208 200" "TitleText"="255 255 255" "Window"="255 255 255" "WindowFrame"="0 0 0" "WindowText"="0 0 0" "MenuHilight"="49 106 197" "MenuBar"="236 233 216"